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Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia

The internal conflict in Rakhine State, Myanmar over the last few decades has forced Rohingyas to flee to other countries, including Malaysia. However, the non-recognition of the status of refugees in Malaysia keeps Rohingyas as “people without documents” and without adequate protection, access to h...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rajaratnam, Surendran, Azman, Azlinda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9180691/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35682126
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116542
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author Rajaratnam, Surendran
Azman, Azlinda
author_facet Rajaratnam, Surendran
Azman, Azlinda
author_sort Rajaratnam, Surendran
collection PubMed
description The internal conflict in Rakhine State, Myanmar over the last few decades has forced Rohingyas to flee to other countries, including Malaysia. However, the non-recognition of the status of refugees in Malaysia keeps Rohingyas as “people without documents” and without adequate protection, access to healthcare services, education, and employment. Women among these groups face different challenges and are at risk of numerous physical and mental health issues. Thus, this research attempted to understand the experiences of Rohingya women in Malaysia, particularly in accessing public hospitals. Focus group discussions and key-informant interview techniques were used to collect data. The transcripts were then analysed using the thematic analysis method. The research found that Rohingya women experience numerous challenges despite being on safer ground in Malaysia. Their experiences of marriage and domestic violence, access to public hospitals, financial barriers to healthcare services, and the services provided by medical social workers in the country to refugees and asylum seekers are presented. Non-recognition of the status of refugees in the country is one of the primary barriers to the allocation and provision of resources for refugees and asylum seekers. Due to structural barriers, medical social workers are unable to provide their services to this population. This article provides recommendations for social workers in Malaysia on how to overcome these challenges and work more effectively with refugees and asylum seekers.
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spelling pubmed-91806912022-06-10 Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia Rajaratnam, Surendran Azman, Azlinda Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The internal conflict in Rakhine State, Myanmar over the last few decades has forced Rohingyas to flee to other countries, including Malaysia. However, the non-recognition of the status of refugees in Malaysia keeps Rohingyas as “people without documents” and without adequate protection, access to healthcare services, education, and employment. Women among these groups face different challenges and are at risk of numerous physical and mental health issues. Thus, this research attempted to understand the experiences of Rohingya women in Malaysia, particularly in accessing public hospitals. Focus group discussions and key-informant interview techniques were used to collect data. The transcripts were then analysed using the thematic analysis method. The research found that Rohingya women experience numerous challenges despite being on safer ground in Malaysia. Their experiences of marriage and domestic violence, access to public hospitals, financial barriers to healthcare services, and the services provided by medical social workers in the country to refugees and asylum seekers are presented. Non-recognition of the status of refugees in the country is one of the primary barriers to the allocation and provision of resources for refugees and asylum seekers. Due to structural barriers, medical social workers are unable to provide their services to this population. This article provides recommendations for social workers in Malaysia on how to overcome these challenges and work more effectively with refugees and asylum seekers. MDPI 2022-05-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9180691/ /pubmed/35682126 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116542 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rajaratnam, Surendran
Azman, Azlinda
Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia
title Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia
title_full Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia
title_fullStr Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia
title_short Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Experiences with Healthcare and Social Environment in Malaysia
title_sort refugee and asylum seeker women’s experiences with healthcare and social environment in malaysia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9180691/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35682126
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116542
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